Transformers Avoids Razzie Awards "Wins"

The "winners" of the Golden Raspberry Awards were announced and despite multiple nominations, Transformers: The Last Knight managed to avoid getting an award. If interested in the meh video announcing the winners, click here but below is the summary.

- Worst Picture: The Emoji Movie
- Worst Director: Tony Leondis – The Emoji Movie
- Worst Actor: Tom Cruise – The Mummy
- Worst Actress: Tyler Perry – Boo 2! A Madea Halloween
- Worst Supporting Actor: Mel Gibson – Daddy’s Home 2
- Worst Supporting Actress: Kim Basinger – Fifty Shades Darker
- Worst Screen Combo: Any two obnoxious emojis – The Emoji Movie
- Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel: Fifty Shades Darker
- Worst Screenplay: The Emoji Movie

Honest Trailer for Transformers: The Last Knight

Oddly late in its arrival, Screen Junkies has finally posted their Honest Trailer for Transformers: The Last Knight. As is the norm for this series, it a humorous but no holds bar take on the film so if a fan of the film will likely not like the below video.

Transformers: The Last Knight Receives Multiple Razzie Nominations

In what has unfortunately become a tradition for the franchise, Transformers: The Last Knight "won" multiple nominations for The 38th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards. The awards are an anti-Oscar as it "rewards" the worst movies of the year with the nominations announced the day before the Oscar nominations (aka "the best" movies of the year). Pretty much the entire lead adult cast, writers and Michael Bay scored nominations but on the bright side the movie has some strong competition with Fifty Shades Darker, The Mummy, Baywatch, Mother and others also getting multiple nominations. While I was not a fan of the film, there were worst films that should have taken its place like The Book of Henry and The Snowman. The winner will be revealed the night before the Oscar ceremony on March 3rd.

Worst Picture
The Emoji Movie
Transformers: The Last Knight
Fifty Shades Darker
The Mummy
Baywatch

Poisonous Performance by an Actor
Tom Cruise, The Mummy
Jamie Dornan, Fifty Shades Darker
Mark Wahlberg, Daddy’s Home 2 and Transformers: The Last Knight
Johnny Depp, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Zac Efron, Baywatch

Worst Supporting Actor
Javier Bardem, Mother! and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Russell Crowe, The Mummy
Josh Duhamel, Transformers: The Last Knight
Mel Gibson, Daddy’s Home 2
Anthony Hopkins, Collide and Transformers: The Last Knight

Worst Supporting Actress
Kim Basinger, Fifty Shades Darker
Sofia Boutella, The Mummy
Laura Haddock, Transformers: The Last Knight
Goldie Hawn, Snatched
Susan Sarandon, A Bad Moms Christmas

Worst Onscreen Combo
Any Combination of Two Characters, Two Sex Toys or Two Sexual Positions, Fifty Shades Darker
Any Combination of Two Humans, Two Robots or Two Explosions, Transformers: The Last Knight
Any Two Obnoxious Emojis, The Emoji Movie
Johnny Depp and His Worn Out Drunk Routine, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Tyler Perry and Either the Ratty Old Dress or Worn Out Wig, Boo! 2: A Madea Halloween

Worst Remake, Ripoff or Sequel
Baywatch
Boo! 2: A Madea Halloween
Fifty Shades Darker
The Mummy
Transformers: The Last Knight

Worst Director
Darren Aronofsky, Mother!
Michael Bay, Transformers: The Last Knight
James Foley, Fifty Shades Darker
Alex Kurtzman, The Mummy
Anthony Leonidis, The Emoji Movie

Worst Screenplay
Baywatch
The Emoji Movie
Fifty Shades Darker
The Mummy
Transformers: The Last Knight

Everything Wrong with Transformers: The Last Knight

CinemaSins has posted their latest humor/attack video, this time turning their ire on Transformers: The Last Knight. If a fan of the film will probably not like the below video at all and if not a fan will likely find it accurate and amusing.

Transformers: The Last Knight Home Release is September 26

Paramount has revealed the release date of Transformers: The Last Knight on home video as September 26, 2017. The movie will come in the usual blu-ray combo packs along with a five movie collection if want all your Bayhem at once. The extra features are pretty typical of the last few years with a few behind the scenes features and not much else so no commentary track, gag reel, etc. Below is the press release. You can pre-order now at Amazon.

Transformers: The Last Knight 4K and 3D Blu-Ray
Paramount Home Media Distribution has officially announced that it will release on 4K Blu-ray 3D Blu-rayand Blu-ray director Michael Bay’s blockbuster’s Transformers: The Last Knight. The groundbreaking adventure will also be available as part of the Transformers’ 5-Movie Blu-ray Collection. All four releases will be available for purchase on September 26.

Transformers: The Last Knight: The Spoiler FAQ

i09.com has posted their snarky (but to me very accurate) take on Transformers: The Last Knight with their "FAQ" that is a pretend Q&A about the film. It does get into all the spoilers so don't read if have not seen the film but plan to. Below is a sample, you can read the TF5 FAQ here.

Why can’t Michael Bay keep track of the canon of his own four films?
I have a theory. You know how babies’ brains haven’t developed, so whenever their parents wander directly out of their eyesight, they start crying because they assume their parents, having disappeared from view, must be gone forever?

Yeah…

It’s called object permanence, and Michael Bay doesn’t have it either. Once he is done with a Transformers movie, he completely forgets everything that’s happened in it, and he starts the next one with his brain as smooth as a baby’s bottom. It’s the reason why the Transformers are always hunting for a new dumb object that is the most important thing in the universe that no one has ever mentioned before, why Megatron sometimes dies but is suddenly fine in the next movie, why after the Autobots save the Earth in very public ways all Transformers are always being hunted when the next film starts, and why humans keep making dumb, dumb, dumb partnerships with the Decepticons even though the Decepticons keeps trying to kill humanity every. Single. Time.

All of which happens in The Last Knight, of course.

Spoiler-Free Transformers: The Last Knight Review

There is two ways to write a spoiler-free review for Transformers: The Last Knight - the short way and the long way. The short way is if you liked the previous films, you will like this one. It has all the Michael Bay elements you expect, all just kicked up to a new notch compared to the previous entry with all the good and the bad that implies. I was not a big fan of Age of Extinction so that should give you a hint on how the long version is going to go.

While many reviewers keep going on and on about the "complicated" story, it really isn't. Its the exact same formula as the previous four films. There is a McGuffin, the bad guys want it to save Cybertron at the expense of Earth. The good guys want it to save the day. Since its a Transformer McGuffin that means it was hidden in the past, it must be found through a series of coincidences in information drops (the one involving Stonehenge was clever), and victory is achieved by a human activating (or deactivating it) to save the day. The rest is just window dressing around that core story to make it seem more complicated then it really is.

This ultimately remains the consistent problem with the Bay version of the Transformers. Making things look complicated that are not or do not have to be at the expense of everything else (except the Bayhem of course). This story introduces a whole lot of characters of which none really matter. There really is only a few characters you should pay attention. To main one, of course, is Cade Yeager (I am in it for the paycheck Mark Wahlberg) who is missing his daughter and hiding from the Transformers Response Force (TRF) in a junk yard with the rest of the Autobots from Age of Extinction minus Optimus Prime and gets his own half McGuffin piece even though it really only matters for one cool moment in the third act. Sir Edmund Burton (having fun Anthony Hopkins) is an exposition factory whose role as last remaining member of a society that kept all the secret knowledge of Transformers history could have easily been handed off to voice over, text, or a book that Vivian Wembley (always game Laura Haddock) finds. Haddock does the best she can with the what is really the sidekick role but ultimately her job is to be pretty and provide love interest looks in between battle sequences.

Transformers 5 Megatron Image and Hot Rod Article

In this week's Entertainment Weekly there is an article with new image covering the cinematic history of Hot Rod. So as a result its a short article. However it does provide a few new story tidbits (relevant parts below). In addition, a twitter user posted a good look at Megatron in what seems to be a meeting with humans.

Alongside Mark Wahlberg’s salt-of-the-earth mechanic, Anthony Hopkins is joining the cast as Sir Edmund Burton, an astronomer who — with the help of Hot Rod — has tracked these long-forgotten connections to another scholar, Oxford professor of English literature Viviane Wembly (Laura Haddock, who played Star-Lord’s mother in Guardians of the Galaxy).

She has no idea she harbors a genetic secret that could destroy (or save) the world. “[The humans] are empowered in a way that is very different than we’ve experienced before and honestly, it’s not easy figuring out how to empower the six foot human versus the 35- or 45-foot robot,” says producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

Hot Rod has secretly been serving as her protector in the guise of her father’s 1963 Citroën DS.

“It’s a rickety old thing, but she can’t part with it because she adores it,” Haddock says of the vintage vehicle. “This car has actually been put there to watch her and feedback information to Anthony Hopkins’s character about what she’s up to and her life. So yeah, she gets kind of taken [by surprise] in a really funny, dramatic way by this Hot Rod.”

So far, the new robot doesn’t have an actor attached. “It’s still in the works,” di Bonaventura says. ...We’re trying to make our cast as international as we can,” di Bonaventura says. “We think it’s fun for the characters, it’s fun for the series, it’s fun for the fans in the different countries. So a lot of the robots are not being voiced or we’re just in the process of casting them now.”

Transformers: The Last Knight Cheat Sheet

Here is the cheat sheet for Transformers 5 that attempts to summarize details about the movie. Consider this a SPOILER WARNING as will post info as it comes up. Verified means the information either came from someone associated with the film (an actor, director, producer, etc.) or through mainstream press (CNN, THR, etc.) so unlikely to be false (but no guarantees). Feel free to comment on any inaccuracies or new info that isn't reflected in the sheet. The below is ultimately speculation and rumor until officially confirmed through those with the production of the film.

Official Title: Transformers: The Last Knight (verified)
Principle Photography: May 25 - October 15, 2016 (verified)
Budget: unknown
Shoot Days: unknown
Release Date: June 23, 2017
Trailers: Teaser | TV Spot #1 | TV Spot #2 | TV Spot #3 | Super Bowl TV Spot | Extended Super Bowl TV Spot | KTA TV Spot | Izzy Trailer | Trailer #1 | International Trailer

Josh Duhamel Talks Joining Transformers 5

In two new interviews, Transformers: The Last Knight actor Josh Duhamel comments on joining the cast. With the AP (video below thanks to Feris O.) he comments on how his experience on a Michael Bay set makes a difference. Over at the Observer.com the actor has signed on as spokesperson for GMC's Building for America's Bravest armed services charity.

Mr. Duhamel was stationed to film his scenes 70 miles outside of Los Angeles in El Mirage, California. “I had never been there and it’s a trip,” he said of the far flung locale. “It’s this giant, flat lakebed with 40 MPH winds that didn’t stop all day, but Michael [Bay]’s set is unlike any other set. He has all of the gadgets and the coolest stuff, and the energy of that set is just really – well, it’s a spectacle, and it’s really changed my career. It’s helped me to pursue other little creative things. I love the big Transformer movies, but I also love these passion projects.”

TF5 Called Transformers: The Last Knight (Updated)

Via the official Instagram account we now have the official title of Transformers 5. It will be called Transformers: The Last Knight. No other details released yet about the cast or story but production is expected to start mid June. My guess is the title is in part based on the Knights theme that was part of Optimus and other Transformers designs from the last film and continues the story arc from Prime going off in space. Also the comic books have been referencing the Knights of Cybertron for the last few years...

Update: MichaelBay.com has also posted about the title saying:

It’s been an amazing journey with Transformers. Ready for another ride, Optimus?

Transformers starts production this week in Cuba.

Paramount: A Transformers Film Per Year Scheduled

Today Paramount announced the planned release dates for the next Transformers films.

Transformers 5 - June 23, 2017
Bumblebee Movie - June 8, 2018
Transformers 6 - June 28, 2019

Michael Bay is set to direct Transformers 5 with Mark Wahlberg as the star. To maintain that ambitious release schedule, where each film needs about 18 to 24 months each to make, Paramount has pretty much guaranteed Bay will not be directing Transformers 6 (but nothing stopping him from doing TF 7) as Bay seems to like a year break from the TF franchise. This may explain why Transformers: Robots in Disguise is ending after only two seasons. At this point the cartoons exists to fill in the gap between movies and there will be no gap for three years (at least).

Transformers 5 Filming to Begin In May

According to My Entertainment World, Transformers 5 will begin principle photography sometime in May. Not sure really sure about the accuracy of the site's info but that date is pretty predictable considering the last three films all started filming in late April or mid May the year before intended release date of the movie and continued filming through the summer at a variety of locations. So in this case the plan is probably start filming from May to August or September and then post production through to May or June 2017.

Transformers 5 Returning to Chicago

In a radio interview with WGN to promote his latest film 13 Hours, Transformers 5 director Michael Bay indicated that Transformers 5 would film in Chicago once again. He did not indicate the scale of the filming so it could just be a brief week or two shoot (like Age of Extinction) or for a majority of the film (Dark of the Moon). If Bay sticks to his same general schedule as previous films then principle photography will crank up sometime in April or May. (via TFW2005)

Michael Bay Comments on Transformers Writers Room

In an interview with Collider for 13 Hours, Michael Bay briefly commented on the Transformers Writers Room. As far as giving any info on Transformers 5 he said "I can't tease shit. I am going to be like J.J. Abrams". Important part below, TF stuff starts at the 7:27 point in the video below.

Collider: They are aiming to do a lot more. They had these story groups. Where people came in. What can you tease people about where you want to take your last installment of the franchise and maybe anything you can reveal from those story meetings that really resonated with you.
Bay: They did a really good job of going back in time and connecting things in history and how it relates. Different spin-offs. They are a very talented group of writers. They came up with a lot of clever ideas. Steven [Spielberg] and I are going to break out some smaller ones to do. I guess this will be my last one.

Collider: You have said that before.
Bay: Yeah, I know. That is all they want to do is this franchise. That is all they want to do. I had to beg to get to get to make [13 Hours].

All he really did was confirm what we already knew - that the Writers Room generated multiple story ideas that Hasbro, Paramount, etc are considering. Michael Bay, regardless if Transformers 5 is the last TF film he directs, is likely contractually locked in for Executive Producer credit for all future Transformers films which means he has input on at least some of the decisions for the franchise's future.

Michael Bay Directing Transformers 5

In a new interview with Rolling Stone to promote his upcoming movie 13 Hours, Michael Bay revealed "I'm doing Transformers ... 5, is it?" Exactly when he signed on wasn't revealed but apparently pre-production is well under way as the interview partly occured during an interview with ILM as they went over effects for 13 Hours, TMNT 2 (a look at Krang and oddly making directing decisions on a film he didn't direct) and Transformers 5 where "They show Bay an underwater rendering of a crash-landed alien spaceship, then a new dump-truck Transformer with a cloak. Neither are up to snuff."

He has directed all five of the films and just like the last two times he also said "But it's time to move on. One more." Chances are Hasbro and Paramount backed up the money truck as he is rumored to have made close to $100 million for each of the last few films so can't really blame him for not wanting to say no to that. I also can't help but wonder if this time the action scenes are being driven by the script developed from the Transformers' Writing Room or if once again he comes up with the action scenes and the script is created to move the story from one action beat to the next as has been the case for the last three films.

Mark Wahlberg Confirms Return for Transformers 5

In an interview with Brazilian website CinePop, Mark Wahlberg confirmed he is return as Cade Yeager for Transformers 5. It remains unknown if Michael Bay is returning to the director's chair nor if any other members of the Transformers 4 cast are coming back. (via TFW2005)

Akiva Goldsman Out as Transformers 5 As Takes Over Hasbro Writer's Room

It seems that Hasbro found the Transformers Writers Room concept so successful they decided to use it for their other properties that are in the pipeline including G.I. Joe and the Micronauts. They tapped the leader of the TW Room, Akiva Goldsman, to lead the Hasbro Writers Room. Due to his new responsibilities he will no longer write the script for Transformers 5 but instead supervise script writing for TF5 (whatever that means). Paramount is negotiating with Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (Iron Man) and Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down) to write the Transformers 5 script.

- Blog Note: Noticed that site was getting redirected to some ad thing. No idea what that was. Hope I have it fixed but the only ads that should occur are the banner ones you see on the page that are only from Google or Amazon and none should do some overlay or redirection. Basically if they impede you reading the site, I consider it a problem. If that occurs please let me know using the email icon in the top right.

Hasbro Already Planning for Transformers 8

In the keynote address for the MIP Junior Conference 2015 (held in France to highlight children programming), Hasbro VP and Chief Content Officer Stephen Davis confirmed that Hasbro is not just planning on Transformers 5 but also up to Transformers 5 due to the Writer's Room producing enough content for them to plan through 2025.

“Well, you’re gonna see a new Transformers movie coming from Hasbro and Paramount and Michael Bay and our other partners. In fact, we just finished, which some of you may have read, just an incredible experience. We decided that we wanted to plot out the next 10 years of the Transformers franchise and so we got together in a room over a three-month period of time. Nine of some of the most creative writers I have ever worked with, shepherded by Akiva Goldsman, who many of you may know won an Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind and written a bunch of really great movies, and they plotted out the next 10 years of Transformers. Similarly, we’re doing the same in television and in digital. So stay tuned, Transformers 5 is on its way, and 6 and 7 and 8.”

So what does this mean overall? Nothing. As long as the films continue to make money, Hasbro and Paramount already were going to do a TF 6, 7, 10, 15 etc. All it really proves is Paramount and Hasbro are taking the Star Wars/Marvel approach to their franchise by having a long term goal but taking each film as it comes. The key difference is Star Wars and Marvel are prepared to absorb and continue on if one of their franchise films fail while Paramount would become extremely gun shy about further Transformers films if any one of them fails at the box office. So really it changes nothing of what little we already know...Paramount and Hasbro remain in the TF movie business, they continue to wait for Michael Bay to commit to TF5 and they continue to plan the franchise both with and without Michael Bay in the director's chair. If interested in watching the keynote, click here. The TF movie comments start at the 13:30 mark.

Transformers 5 and Transformers Animated Movie Get Writers

Deadline is reporting that the early results are in from the Transformers Writers room and the powers that be have decided that Akiva Goldsman will write the script for Transformers 5 while the Ant-Man writing team will take on an animated feature. The Transformers 5 script is being written on the assumption that Mark Wahlberg will star as Michael Bay as director but neither are actually signed up for TF5. As Bay tweeted, "Re: directing TF5. No, it's not official. I have not committed to any idea as of yet. Just met with Steven [Spielberg] and we are discussing." Previous interviews with Mark Walhberg indicated his interest in a sequel is highly dependent on Bay's involvement so if Bay returns, Mark returns. No Bay and Paramount is going to have to work harder to get Walhberg to return. Likely they are hoping that Akiva's script might be enough to get Bay to sign up again.